Catalyst: Book 2 of The Dark Paradise Trilogy

by Isadora Brown

  “Can’t we just blame my art of persuasion?” she teased with one of her more brilliant smiles.

  “I blame something, but it isn’t exactly your … persuasion,” Jack mumbled. “We have to be extra cautious, And. Lucas Burr—”

  “I get it,” Andie said, playfully smacking him on the chest. Jack quickly grabbed her hand and turned it over so he could place a chaste kiss on the inside of her wrist.

  “I just worry about you,” he said against her skin. Gently, he pulled her closer to him so he could wrap his arms around her waist, staking his claim on his girlfriend. He didn’t mind the fact that she was wet; in fact, he barely noticed it. He did, however, notice the male guests paying her hourglass figure a particular sort of interest, and gave a pointed look in their general direction. Andie didn’t seem to know what was going on, but she reveled in Jack’s touch, wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled his head back before grazing his forehead against hers. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you,” he confessed softly, tightening his grip on her.

  “I feel the same about you,” she told him. “Lucky for you, I’m not a masked vigilante searching the streets of Onyx in the middle of the night, hmm?” She tilted her head to the left only slightly, giving him an expectant look.

  He chuckled, wrapping a damp lock of hair around his index finger. “Yes,” he conceded, “I am extremely lucky to have you.”

  Andie gave him a genuine smile before glancing around. “So, where is this woman?” she asked, looking through the crowds of couples, hoping to find a woman waiting alone. “She knows where the Five Crowns is, right?”

  “I’d imagine so,” Jack replied, pulling away from her but keeping his arm wrapped securely around her waist. He glanced down at his silver Rolex watch. “Our table’s ready for us and all that, but …” He frowned upon realizing what time it was. “She’s fifteen minutes late.”

  Andie frowned as well, but tried to keep her thoughts positive instead of focusing on the lack of professionalism this woman was showing. “Well, it is raining,” she pointed out. “Maybe she’s stuck in traffic or something.”

  Before Jack could agree with her, somebody touched him on the small of his back. Quite intimately, actually. He turned and saw a very familiar face, someone he wasn’t expecting to see in a long time, let alone here, at this moment. To say Jack was pleased would be a down-right lie. Andie tilted her head forward, wanting to see what had caused him to shift his frame. An absolutely beautiful woman was standing there, her hand still resting on Jack’s—her boyfriend’s—back. Despite the fact that they technically hadn’t had that conversation yet, she considered him to be her man. And by the way his hand gripped her waist right now, she concluded that he felt the same way about her. Though Andie had tried, she knew that she would always be a slightly protective person. She didn’t care if this woman was worth bazillions; she shouldn’t be touching Jack in that way. It was blatantly disrespectful, let alone lacked professionalism.

  Not to say the woman wasn’t pretty. Maybe that was what caused Andie’s eyes to narrow slightly suspiciously at the young woman; she was downright beautiful. She was older than Andie, probably more around Jack’s age, but it didn’t seem to matter where looks were concerned. She was taller than Andie, probably five-foot-seven, with flawless pale skin, long, luxurious red hair, and cool blue eyes. She was wearing a red dress that dipped low, revealing ample cleavage. The hemline stopped at the middle of her thigh, showcasing beautiful long legs. On her feet, there was a pair of bold red high heels that pushed her up another four inches. Her make-up was perfect. Andie swallowed self-consciously; she was just plain wet.

  “Vanessa?” Jack asked, subtly taking a step toward Andie and out of the young woman’s grasp. “Vanessa Barnes?”

  “Jack,” Vanessa said, flashing a grin. “Jack Phillip.” Her eyes caught sight of Andie, cooling if only for a fraction of a second. “And this must be the famous Andrea Shepherd.”

  “Yes,” Jack said smoothly, his grip on Andie tightening for a different reason. “This is my girlfriend.”

  See? They were on the same page. No conversation needed.

  “Well, who knew?” Vanessa said, sticking out her hand and smiling at the young woman. “Jack Phillip, a made man. I never thought I’d see the day. You are a very lucky woman.”

  “Oh,” Andie said, furrowing her brow but taking Vanessa’s hand in hers anyway. “Um … thank you. I am lucky, actually.”

  “It’s me who’s lucky, Vanessa,” Jack said, giving Vanessa an unreadable stare. Andie recognized it but couldn’t describe it. She had seen him use it in business meetings when his employees got a little rowdy. He never yelled, but the look he was currently giving this Vanessa Barnes was one and the same. Luckily, she seemed to get the point, and nodded in agreement at his statement.

  “Well, I am starved,” Andie stated, trying to ease the tension. She slipped her arm through Jack’s and glanced up at him. “What about sitting down, hmm?”

  Vanessa watched as Jack smiled down at Andie with such ease. When she knew him, it had seemed so hard to get him to smile. But that was then and this was now. She wouldn’t think about that just yet.

  “I agree,” he told her, and then caught eyes with one of the hosts before giving the man his infamous Phillip nod, indicating that he and his party were ready to sit down.

  “You look cold, Andrea,” Vanessa noticed aloud as the three were escorted to a very secluded table in the back. Her eyes were scanning Andie as a whole, sizing up competition—not that this woman was competition, of course. No, that would be silly.

  “Please,” Andie said, giving her a small smile. “Call me Andie.” She glanced down at her attire before shrugging sheepishly. “Yeah, I got caught in the rain and didn’t have time to run home and change. I don’t really mind though. I love walking in the rain.”

  “If my memory serves me right, you also love dancing in it too,” Jack teased, pulling out a chair and offering it to Andie. He slid his jacket off, and before she could protest, slipped it snugly around her shoulders. She smiled at him, their eyes conversing with each other silently, relaying inside jokes and secrets that Vanessa was clearly not a part of.

  “So, Vanessa,” Andie said, scooting her chair in a bit before giving her full attention to the woman sitting across from her. “I wanted to thank you personally for taking time out of your schedule to meet with us to discuss investment opportunities with—”

  “Oh, Andie,” Vanessa interrupted as the host began pouring wine for both Jack and Vanessa while she got sparkling cider. That was pretty embarrassing, if she was being honest. “Jack and I have known each other for a long time. We actually went to college together.”

  “Oh?” Andie asked, her brow perking. She was still smiling, but it had lost some of its natural sparkle. “Did you guys have the same classes or something?” As she asked this particular question, she slid her fingers around her wine glass and brought it to her lips.

  “We were actually together,” Vanessa said, her blue eyes sparkling darkly. “He was my boyfriend.”

  Andie nearly choked on her gulp of sparkling cider.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, once she had gained control of her breathing. She blinked a couple of times before staring at the woman across from her. “I don’t think I heard you correctly. What did you say?” Her brow perked up, trying her absolute best to regain her patience and politeness, but the smirk that was on the woman’s lips was making it very hard.

  “Oh, we dated,” Vanessa said nonchalantly, as though she didn’t notice how disturbed Andie was by this confession. But her crisp, blue eyes held a dark, mischievous gleam that revealed she knew exactly how Andie was feeling, and she was loving every moment of the younger woman’s distress. “For about a year, I think.” She glanced over at Jack, her brow furrowed, feigning contemplation.

  Jack looked at Vanessa with a pointed stare, arching a brow as though he was telling her he was finding her antics
none too amusing. Vanessa was unperturbed by his stare and just perked her brow up innocently as she slid her knuckles delicately underneath her chin and rested her elbow on the tabletop. He suppressed an impatient sigh and glanced over at Andie who, God love her, was trying to keep a look of neutrality. His eyes lit up as they met her profile, and he reached over and placed his large hand over her small one, squeezing it in hopes to reassure her. “It was so long ago,” he finally said, glancing over at Vanessa before returning his gaze on her. “I don’t really remember.”

  Vanessa, for a fraction of a second, let a scowl touch her features before quickly slipping back on her beautiful mask of subtle mischief. She clenched her teeth for a moment, before letting a low chuckle escape from her bow-shaped lips. “He is quite the charmer, isn’t he?” she asked Andie in her smooth, velvet voice.

  Andie felt the corners of her lips tug up in amusement as the past two years quickly skimmed through her mind. Her eyes gazed over the simplicities of Jack’s face and her smile deepened. Vanessa felt her insides churn with disgust. She knew how annoying couples in love could be, but when one of them happened to be her ex-boyfriend, her potent jealousy merged with that disgust, creating an intangible amount of anger that started to boil deep within herself. However, Vanessa was superb at hiding her feelings, pushing them to the corners of her mind.

  “He is quite … something,” Andie allowed, causing Jack to chuckle.

  At that moment, a waiter stopped by and after reciting the specials, stood patiently, awaiting for everybody to place their order. Waiters who worked at the Five Crowns were required to memorize their table’s order down to the last detail, believing that scrawling anything down was beneath them and classless. Vanessa order a grilled salmon, Jack ordered prime rib, and Andie ordered the pasta.

  “I’m so jealous, Andrea,” Vanessa said as soon as the waiter had disappeared into the dim room. “Pasta is filled with carbs! I’d be so afraid of putting on weight that I can’t help but stay away from that stuff.”

  “Excuse me?” Andie asked flatly.

  “You know what, Vanessa,” Jack said, quickly intervening between the two. “Why don’t we talk about your potential investment in Shepherd’s Peak, hmm?”

  “Of course,” Vanessa said, giving him a polite smile. When she met his eyes, however, there was a dangerous warning deeply embedded in his jade green irises. “How silly of me to get off track. All right.” The woman sat up straighter, her confidence built back up once again. Business was her forte, and whenever she spoke about it, she captivated her audience. She had no doubt that she would do the same now. “Now Jack, you know my father has always had a soft spot for you. He really liked you, admired you, especially knowing that once you graduated college, you inherited your father’s company, and turned it from waning to running. Though the two of you parted ways, he’s always kept an eye on you and always remarked how proud he was of you. You know, you were like the son he never had.”

  “Yes, Vanessa,” Jack said. He was feeling slightly uncomfortable of the unnecessary praise Vanessa was relaying to him. “Can we please get on with it?”

  “He doesn’t handle praise very well, does he?” Vanessa asked Andie, her face still the definition of innocence.

  Andie had somehow found some sort of predatory confidence, and she studied the woman in front of her quite coolly. “I suppose it depends on who is giving him the praise,” she said. Jack glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and hid an amused smile. She looked sexy when she was attempting to hide her jealousy.

  “Yes,” Vanessa said, not expecting that reaction from the woman. “Well, anyway, as you know, I graduated from Stanford with Honors and started working for my father’s company up to the point where I am now Vice President.”

  “Congratulations,” Jack offered her. “I remember how much you wanted that.”

  Vanessa was beaming inside, and her dark eyes lighted at his sweetness. However, instead of speaking, she nodded. “Yes, well,” she continued. “My father heard through the grapevine that you were opening your own animal shelter. As you know, Jack, my father is incredibly philanthropic, especially when it comes to any nonprofit involving animals. He wanted me to schedule this meeting with you to discuss possible donations to this shelter.”

  “Let me interrupt you right there,” Jack said, and though he was smiling, Andie knew that that particular grin was his forced politeness with a necessity to correct grin. “Shepherd’s Peak is not my shelter. I bought it for Andie. She’s the one who will be opening it, running it, and managing it.”

  “Be that as it may,” Vanessa said, narrowing her blue eyes into Jack’s. “You’re now looking for donations to get what you need for this effort. Because of the previous good standing you shared with my father, I suggested our company look into what you’re offering. As the Vice President, I will represent my father’s company, and if we do choose to invest, you’re dealings will be directly with me. No offense to your girlfriend, but it’s your name that will attract donors, not hers. As such, it is you I will be speaking with.”

  Andie felt her body tense at Vanessa’s last sentence. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something inside of her didn’t trust this woman. At first, Andie figured Vanessa had wanted to interact with Jack strictly on professional terms, throwing some teasing jokes her way. She could deal with that. But there was something that lay deeper to the heart of the issue, maybe some selfish intentions concealed by the seeming innocence of the investment. How did her father even hear about the shelter, anyway? Wasn’t it rather convenient that a potential donor happened to be one of Jack’s exes? However, she also knew that she needed this. If she wanted to be taken seriously as a business woman, she had to accept that not everything would go her way and there would be people she really didn’t want to deal with. The way she handled it would build her reputation. So, instead of allowing anyone—including Jack—to notice her uncertainty, to notice her doubt, her worry, and especially her possessiveness over her boyfriend, she painted a mask of contentment on her face.

  “And what can we expect from your company?” Jack asked, his thumb tracing mindless patterns on the surface of Andie’s hand. It didn’t seem that he was even aware that he was doing it.

  “Well, we’re incredibly invested in the promoting factor of a company,” Vanessa replied. “We feel that if a company is highly promoted with hot, qualified sponsors, people are going to want to buy that company’s products. We have parties scheduled for the next month with different themes, plus an A-list guest lists. Everybody wants to get in, but nobody can. Because the parties will be exclusive, everyone will want to get in.”

  “Wait, may I ask a question?” Andie interrupted, her brow furrowed by her confusion. It was obvious Vanessa was displeased at the interruption, but she nodded curtly. “Shouldn’t we make the parties more accessible to the public? I mean, then the public will feel that the company’s paying closer attention to them, and if they feel taken care of, wouldn’t they want to buy those products because of the developed trust?”

  “I appreciate your suggestion, Andrea,” Vanessa said. Her tone was crisp and cold, but any criticism was skillfully kept out of it. “But this is serious. People buy things because they are sponsored by certain celebrities—the celebrities people want to be. If Shepherd’s Peak had Gerard Butler as their spokesperson, men and women are going to buy the animals from Gerard Butler’s shelter. However,” Vanessa said, and here, her lips curled up dangerously, “I agree with you to a point. Accessibility is always helpful. Since Jack Phillip literally supports every facet of his company, he should definitely be at every event. However, accessibility is limited when everyone knows he’s attached to someone. Women want to buy products from a wealthy, single, sexy man in hopes to get a chance with him. If they know he’s attached, they may not necessarily buy from him.”

  “Are you asking us to … break up?” Andie asked, her face now contorted into actual confusion tainted with obvious anger
.

  “Absolutely not,” Jack said firmly, his eyes narrowed into Vanessa’s.

  “Not really,” Vanessa explained. “But maybe you could make the public believe you guys were on some sort of outs. We could paint Jack as this loveable, sweet victim, and—”

  “Absolutely not,” Jack said once again, not liking any minute of it.

  “Are you insane?” Andie asked. “We’re trying to find animals a home.”

  “Listen, you want to know how to increase capital and attain investments?” Vanessa asked. “This is the way. It’s up to you.” She shot a pointed look at Jack just as the waiter came back with three steaming hot plates of food.

  37

  Stewart returned to the mansion just after Kyle had left, the white van full of ammunition. Donald was still sprawled out on the couch, completely focused on the game show that seemed to be a part of some kind of marathon going on.

  Keirah was upstairs in the bathroom that was connected to the bedroom she had shared with Noir only a few weeks ago. In the bags she had brought home, she had bought yet another Bombshell dress. Tonight would be her big debut as her own criminal. This time, it wasn’t like she was going to walk into a bank with her mouth hanging open, unsure of what to do. This time, it was she who had a plan. This time, she would be the one to rescue Noir.

  And by doing this, she would sever the last tie she had with the city of Onyx. Commissioner Jarrett would surely recognize her face, and as a result, he would know she chose to be with Noir. Keirah wanted him to know that, at least for his sake. This way, Noir would have no reason to kill him, not if the commissioner was actively seeking Noir and Bombshell out as some sort of partners in crime. Jarrett wouldn’t be able to make any excuses for her, and dammit, she didn’t want him to.

  Keirah was her own criminal. She had a costume, her own identity. But she was also the yin to Noir’s yang. He was Noir and she was his Bombshell. They were criminal royalty when they were together.